JOLIET -- Local contractor Pete DeCraene put out the call to help make a disabled veteran's house a little easier to live in and was overwhelmed by the response.

"It was amazing. My phone never stopped ringing," DeCraene, the owner of DeCraene Custom Homes in Joliet, said of the offers to assist from fellow members of the Will-Grundy Counties Home Builders & Associates.

Within 24 hours of sending out an e-mail, DeCraene said, he had offers for about 85 percent of what he needed in order to complete renovations to the home of disabled veteran Sergio Lopez.

Lopez, 24, lost both his legs to a roadside mine in Iraq. The Romeoville High School graduate returned to the United States about a year and a half ago. When he got back to the states, he decided to move his wife and two young daughters to Joliet, where his parents had already moved.

Lopez planned on doing the work to his Devonshire Drive home himself, getting it done a little bit at a time. And then he got a call from a representative of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. The lieutenant governor's office had volunteered to make improvements to his bathroom through the Disabled Patriot Fund, "which I wasn't even aware of," Lopez said.

And it turned out that it was much more than just the bathroom that the builders' group was going to spruce up. They fixed up the living room, installed a bay window, made general interior improvements to make the house more livable for Lopez, poured concrete sidewalks and painted. Some landscaping remains to be done and a ramp will be added off the back deck. While the association has helped others in need, this was the first time they came to the aid of a disabled veteran, DeCraene said.

"It's great. I don't even have words for what happened here," Lopez said.

"I'm very grateful for that," he said. "Not just me, but my family, too."

To make a donation to the Patriot Fund please call 708-365-9445 or go to www.disabledpatriotfund.com